Flydubai Boeing 737 Crashes In Russia, Killing All 62 On Board

A Flydubai Boeing 737-800 crashed on Saturday morning in Rostov-on-Don, Russia after a second approach in severe rain and gusting winds.

The aircraft, operating as flight FZ981 from Dubai, had 55 passengers and seven crew on board. It departed from Dubai at 22.37 local time and was on its first final approach to Rostov after little more than four hours. The crew decided to abort the first approach because of strong winds and climbed to hold. After another 90 minutes, the aircraft left its holding pattern at an altitude of 15,000 ft. for a second attempt to land on runway 22.

At the time of the accident, the prevailing winds were measured as 27 knots from 240 degrees with gusts of up to 42 knots. According to ADS-B data published by Flightradar 24, the aircraft continued what looked like a routine approach until around 3 nm before the runway threshold where it reached an altitude of 1,550 ft. It then started to climb again to 3,975 ft. before starting a violent descent that reached 21,000 ft./min.

The data also shows the aircraft crashed short on the left side of the runway and came to rest to the right, almost at the opposite end.

It is still unclear what triggered the climb on short finals and the violent descent.

The Boeing 737-800 was registered as A6-FDN. The aircraft was delivered new to Flydubai in December 2010. The crash is the first ever for Flydubai, the all-737 operator which began operating in 2008. Flydubai, like Emirates Airline, is owned by the Dubai government but has limited links to its sister company. It focuses on medium-haul routes in the Middle East, Africa, South East and Central Asia as well as Europe. Its home base is Dubai International airport's terminal 2.

Flydubai said in a statement that the accident has resulted in “55 passenger fatalities,” including 44 Russian citizens. The airline said it is contacting the relatives of passengers and crew. It is now focusing on establishing the facts and offering support to the authorities.